IN SEASON Farmers Market to open with a new manager. Page 4
NEWS | Business community works to attract weddings. [5] COMMENTARY | Senator weighs in on the legislative session. [6] COMMUNITY | Debate club stacks up at State. [20]
MAURY IN THE MOVIES New film is based on historical UFO sighting. Page 10
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014
Vol. 59, No. 14
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
CHECKING OUT THE NEW LIBRARY
Granny’s Attic considers move into town surprise. Susan Chun, the president of the Granny’s board since January, acknowledged the disagreement and the magnitude of the potenBy SUSAN RIEMER tial transition. Staff Writer “It was a tough decision Nearly 40 years after all the way around,” she Granny’s Attic opened at said. “It has not been easy.” Questions about moving Sunrise Ridge, its members surfaced last year, Chun are scheduled to vote next week on moving the non- noted, but the idea was profit thrift store into town. dismissed in part because Granny’s eight-person of the sheer enormity of the task. board is recHowever, as ommending “It was a tough the cold and that its memdecision all the way rain of winbers, who volter set in, unteer at the around.” the concrete store and vote Susan Chun, b u i l d i n g s on policy matGranny’s Attic board president with inadters, move to equate heat relocate the and leaking shop to the Vashon Market IGA shop- roofs showed their age, and ping center. Supporters of the idea surfaced again in the idea say that doing so February, she said. Tim would provide additional Johnson, the business manand better space for the ager at Granny’s, was asked cramped store and bring to determine if there were it to a central, more eas- viable options for the store ily accessible location. It elsewhere on Vashon and would also free members to make a recommendaof the nonprofit to focus tion to the board. While he the store’s proceeds on ful- started the process believfilling health-related grants ing Granny’s should stay at instead of on maintaining its longtime home, he said and remodeling the aging he changed his mind after exploring the possibilities. Sunrise Ridge facility. “It’s where the evidence Other Granny’s members, however, say that they led me,” he said. When it met March 17, are being asked to make the decision far too quick- the Granny’s board considly. Some believe Granny’s ered three options, Chun history at Sunrise Ridge said: to stay at the site and is important and that the pay to fix problems at the board has not done its buildings and in the parkdue diligence internally or ing lot, to take over ownexternally, including com- ership of the site with the municating with its land- Sunrise Ridge board or to lords at Sunrise Ridge, who SEE GRANNY’S, 19 say the news took them by
Members are split, will vote next week
Jeff Dunnicliff Photos
Julie Brand, interim director of the King County Library System, hands out ribbons to be untied at the library’s opening ceremony last Saturday. Below, library patrons peruse and use the newly remodeled building.
A spacious, high-tech library is unveiled By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Hundreds of islanders flocked to the Vashon Library on Saturday, getting a first look at the newly renovated library, complete with large banks of windows, expanded spaces for meeting and working and features to appeal to those who have left the printed word behind for electronic devices. At a ceremony on Saturday morning, community leaders, including State Sen. Sharon Nelson, as well as officials with the King County Library System (KCLS), said a few words before a large ribbon was untied — not cut — and the doors to the new library were opened. “It was just packed,” said Jan Riley, who heads the local branch. The renovation, which has been in the works for years, was made possible by a $172 million bond King County voters approved in 2004 to build and modernize libraries around the county. The $6 million Vashon Library remodel expanded the building at Ober Park from SEE LIBRARY, 15
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